Cellular and wireless communication technologies have seen explosive growth over the past several years. Cellular service providers now offer a wide array of features and services that provide their users with unprecedented levels of access to information, resources and communications. To keep pace with these service enhancements, mobile electronic devices (e.g., cellular phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) have become more feature rich, and now commonly include global positioning system (GPS) receivers, sensors, and many other components for connecting users to friends, work, leisure activities and entertainment. As a result of these improvements, mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets, etc.) have become ubiquitous, and mobile device users now expect to have access to content, data and communications at any time, in any place.
Cellular communication networks are designed to accommodate access requests from only a fraction of the total number of wireless devices in a particular cell. At times of emergency or crisis, network resources may become overtaxed when predictable human responses to the situation prompt an extraordinary number of wireless device users within a particular cell to access the network at the same time. Wireless device users may be attempting to alert emergency personnel of the emergency situation (such as a 911 emergency call) or to alert friends or family members that the user is safe despite being in the area of an emergency situation. Some users may be transmitting images of the emergency condition (fire, accident, etc.) to news services or friends. The predictable increase in call volume during an emergency situation can overwhelm a commercial cellular communications network, particularly in the cell zone encompassing the emergency, causing service outages and/or long wait times. Consequently, the efficient detection of emergency situations (or other events that causes cellular service to be limited or overwhelmed) and the prioritization of access to telecommunication networks during such emergencies is an important and challenging design criterion for cellular service providers, network engineers, and mobile device designers.